Dealing With Opression

   I just got back from a talk given by a group of Middle Eastern students who attend Chico State. The meeting was about living as a person of Middle Eastern descent in the United States and the prejudice and injustice they face daily. When I first walked into the room, I was a little uncomfortable because I was one of only 5 students who attended. As the room filled up, my uncomfortable feelings quickly diminished and the group of students began an interesting presentation that made me think twice about how I perceive people who have a different skin color than that of my own. With an offering of baklava, they quickly introduced themselves and I was immediately captivated by their stories. The two group leaders Rami and Sam, who were from Palestine and Lebanon respectively, introduced the rest of the presenters who came from a variety of places including Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Israel.

    Rather than just begin with a one sided presentation, this meeting was more focused on discussion and a movie. After introductions, they began the comedy film Axis of Evil. This film portrays stand up comedy from comedians such as Dean Obeidaliah (which translates into worshipper of Allah) and Ahmed Ahmed. Throughout the stand up routines the comedians shed light on how their people were being treated across the post 9/11 world. With an introductory statistic stating that hate crimes against Middle Easterners have risen 1000% since 9/11, they used this as fuel for their comedy. My favorite joke of the movie was when Dean was upset that his people did not get a month of recognition. He said, “African Americans get black history month, Asians get Asian awareness month, and all we get is orange alerts!”

    Although most of the meeting was centered on humor, the fact that these Chico State students have to deal with prejudice on a daily basis just because of their last names is a little unnerving. When the students opened up and begun talking about what they were studying, their homelands, and their interests, I realized that they were just like me, they just had different last names. One thing I got out of this meeting was that I take being white for granted. I am always concerned with things that seem so little after hearing what these students have to deal with just because of where they are from. I think that after this president who targets foreigners is out of office, their lives might get a little easier.